SOVIET CONFIDENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1943, Page 3

SOVIET CONFIDENCE

GERMAN ATTACK HELD SATISFACTORILY IN DAYS OF FEROCIOUS CONFLICT. SKY FULL OF RUSSIAN FIGHTERS. (Bv Telegraph— Press Association— Copyright) ' y S P LONDON, July 7. In its third day, the battle of the Kursk sailent is continuing with increasing ferocity. The Russians claim to be holding the German attack satisfactorily. Yesterday was another day of tremendous enemy losses. It is considered in London that the great weight of arms thrown in by the enemy indicates a more ambitious objective than the capture of Kursk. Reuter says that the Russians are meeting the first round of the summer battles in a stronger spirit than ever before. At the top of one newspaper appears Lenin’s slogan: “We are much stronger than the enemy. Victory is not far off. It will be ours.” The double German thrust against the Kursk bulge extends in a gigantic semicircle with a radius of 30 miles, centred on Kursk. The Germans are trying to protect their flank by launching secondary attacks to the north of Orel on the Mtsensk sector, where probing had been going on. for months. In the south the attack ort the Byelgorod sector is developing along a front of 40 miles. The German thrust at one point, was strong enough to capture two villages, but these were subsequently recaptured by the Rusians. The sky is full of Russian fighters, including the latest model Yak VII, which has played havoc with the successive waves of dive-bombers. i'he Ruslan defences have been strengthened considerably during the lull, and they are generally more powerful than they were last year, adds Reuter.

“FIERCE BATTLE” BUT NO OFFENSIVE. » ELABORATE GERMAN LYING. LONDON, July 6. The Germans still say they have not opened an offensive. Berlin radio described the reports of a new German offensive as nonsense, and it added: “The fierce battles at Byelgorod., which have spread to the area north of Kursk, are the result of the Russian attack on Monday morning. The attack was carried out to counter a German advance, which halted northwest of Byelgorod when a strategic height from which the Rusian hinterland could be kept under observation was captured. “If the British now speak about a German offensive this is without foundation. It is likewise false to claim that Moscow is.the final objective of the German operation. These allegations are put out to enable an announcement to be made later that the German High Command has not reached its objective and has suffered a failfire. An allegation that the Germans have lost hundreds of tanks is unfounded.” Berlin radio described the battle area as the pocket between .Orel and Byelgorod containing a network of railways and roads which is most important to both sides. The radio late last night announced that the Russians, in spite of the use of considerable forces of tanks and men, had not broken the German lines at any point. It said that the fighting was very fierce in the Orel sector, specially to the south of the town, where the Russians had launched a counter-attack.